Clothes-pounder



(No Model) M. REMINGTON.

CLOTHES POUNDER. N0. 321,914. Patented July 7, 1885.

' WITNESSES; I/QVENTOR Why I r I I} ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATENT MOSES REMINGTON, OF BROWNSVILLE, INDIANA.

CLOTHES-POUNDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 321,914, dated July 7, 1885.

Application filed September 24, 1893. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, Mosns REMINGTON, of Brownsville, Union county, Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in OlothesPounders, of which the following is a specification.

This invention pertains to that class of clothes pounders answering to the general name of atmospheric washers, consisting, essentially, of an inverted ainvessel attached to a handle and intended to be reciprocated in connect-ion with the clothes to be washed.

My present invention relates particularly to the relative arrangement of air-chambers and conduits, as hereinafter more fully explained.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical section, and Fig. 2 a plan, of a clothespounder embodying my improvements.

In the drawings, A represents a cone-shaped vessel open at the bottom; B, a handle ferrule or socket attached at the apex thereof; 0, a portion of the handle; D, the upper air-chamber of the vessel; E, air'tubes extending upward from the bottom chamber, D; F, air-conduits communicating with the air-chamber D, and having their lower terminals at the bot tom of the vessel A, at its periphery; G, a diaphragm in the vessel A, forming the floor of the chamber D and the roof of the chamber below it, and H the lower chamber of the vessel.

The airtubes E extend far enough above the vessel to insure the upper ends being above the liquid in which the implement is used. The lower terminals of the conduits F are a slight distance above the lower rim of the vessel. These conduits F maybe formed by tubes secured against the interior surface of the chamber H, and communicating with airchamber D, or they may be formed in a continuous annular way resulting from forming the lower chamber into the frustum of the cone smaller than the vessel, and securing it properly in the vessel so as to leave the, proper spaces between their walls.

In the operation of this implement, it is pressed downward into the suds and clothes, by which means the conduits F become sealed early in the descent. The air confined in the chamber Hbecomes compressed and seeks escape by forcing the air downward through the clothes, producing a cleansing action. As the implement ascends, such air as remains in chamber H is rarefied. The continued ascent of the liquid unseals the lower terminals of the conduits F and permits the influx of air from the chamber D, whose supply is secured through the air tubes E. Meanwhile the contact ot' the rim of the vessel Awith the clothes may be suflicient to form a seal at the rim of the vessel, though not at the lower extremi' ties of the conduits F.

In this general class of clothes-pounders as usually constructed the air which enters the chamber H during the upstroke of the imple ment is required to pass through a conduit .whose length is at least equal to the depth of immersion; and in that special arrangement of pounders in which the admission takes place at the bottom of the pounder it is obvious that the extra length would be added to the inlet-conduits. This extreme length of airconduit is opposed to permitting the prompt influx of air and the efficient working of the implement. In my present invention I suppress the greater part of thelength of the inlet-conduit by locating areservoir of air low down, far below the water-line. Thus it will be seen that during the upstroke of the implement the air, instead of having to flow from apoint above the water-line through restricted conduits, as usual, is required to flow only from the low-down air-reservoir to the point of admission at the bottom of the rim.

It is my desire to here acknowledge fully the state of the art so far as I am informed regarding it, in order that the novelty of my construction may be more readily comprehended.

In United States Letters Patent No. 285,930, of 1883, is exhibited a clothes-pounder which has an upper chamber, and also side conduits; but this upper chamber is not an air-chamber, it being a mere sealed dead-space in the pounder. My present claim has no reference to such chamber when not provided with means for the influx and efflux of air.

In United States Letters Patent No. 222,054, of 1879, is exhibited a clothes-pounder having two airtubes rising from the roof of a coneshaped vessel. The tubes are provided with valves at their tops, and their lower ends are always in free communication with the interior of the vessel. There is no air-chamber like my chamber D interposed between the inlet and the outlet for the air. I do not herein lay claim to any device in which such an air-chamber is not so interposed.

In United States Letters Patent N 0. 247,071, of 1881, there is exhibited a elothes-pounder, cone-shaped, provided with two air-tubes rising from its top, and having a horizontal diaphragm dividing the vessel into an upper and lower chamber. The lower ends of the airtubes are in free communication at all. times with the vessel, and they are not at any time in communication with the chamber above the diaphragm. Said upper chamber is not an airchamber such as my chamber D, but is merely a scaled dead-space in the ponnder. I do not herein lay claim to any arrangement of such upper chamber when the sameis sealed or not provided to allow influx or eftlux of air.

In United States Letters Patent No. 280,145, of 1883, is exhibited a clothes-pounder, coneshaped, having a horizontal diaphragm dividing the pounder-vessel into an upper and low er chamber. There is an air-tube from the upper chamber upward, and provided with a top valve, and there are apertures in the diaphragm for permitting the passage of air from the lower chamber to the upper one. In this exhibit the perforations in the diaphragm place the upper and lower vessel in free communication at all times, with a result, so far as I am enabled to determine, precisely the same as if the diaphragm was not in existence and there was but a single chamber. I do not herein lay claim to any arrangement of upper and lower chamber and air-tubes wherein the upper chamber and the lower chamber are placed in free communication by means of perforations through the separating-diaphragm or at the top of the lower chamber.

I11 United States Letters Patent No. 201,642, of 1878, is exhibited a clothes-pounder differing from the construction last noted in that the perforation in the diaphragm is provided with a valve adapted to close said perforations up on the downstroke of the ponnder. I do not herein lay claim to any device depending upon a valve for closing the communication between the upper and lower chambers of the ponnder.

I claim as my invention- The coneshaped vessel A, provided with a handle socket, a horizontal diaphragm, G, dividing the vessel into chambers D and H, conduits F, leading from the bottom of the vessel into the chamber D, and the conduits E, leading upward out of the chamber D, combined substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

MOSES REMINGTON.

\Vitnesses:

JOHN L. RIIER, J AS. M. CARLOS. 

